There will be a thousand opinions. Ignore them. The problem is that you're asking the wrong question. If you want to "get into" programming you need to do roug

There will be a thousand opinions. Ignore them. The problem is that you're asking the wrong question. If you want to "get into" programming you need to do roughly two things to start. 1. Find a reason to care. This can be a pet project, a particular question, an application domain, a partner or team you'd like to work with, the desire to understand someone's work you admire, etc. 2. Learn how to think formally as a programmer. This is sort of like learning how to code, but it's different from learning any one language. The point is that as you discover greater passion for something in (1) you'll discover greater need for (2). Simultaneously, as you improve (2) you'll become more sensitive to (1). The other point is that languages are dumb. There are lots of reasons to learn one or another, but by and large becoming an "X programmer" is a non-goal unless it is somehow required for (1). For instance, joining a team of Ruby programmers may require becoming a Ruby programmer yourself. So, discarding the philosophy, what do I recommend? Learn whatever language you can the most quickly. Then learn another. Python may already be installed on your computer, so you can get started quickly. The story is probably the same for C, Ruby, Java, and Perl. If you know how to launch web pages online then PHP is probably available. Recognize that programming has a large comparative linguistics component. No single language will teach you (2) above, but solving many diverse problems in a single language might get you a lot of it. Studying many languages expands your familiarity with how to represent things and that can be a big boon to (2). Later on in your career, it's often very valuable to explore languages with vastly different background models and assumptions. Early on, I'm not convinced it's such a huge deal... so long as you don't get stuck with a single choice for too long. And above all, have fun. CS/Programming/Software is a fascinating world for all kinds of reasons.